schoshima - definition and etymology

What happens when two people come together to create something complex and uncertain? Like for instance, an experimental game. 

Kazumichi and Mélisandre on vacation in Val David, circa 2012

Although a million things can be considered games, and so many facets of games are compelling, this post focuses on the potential for poetry. Every interaction, every rule, every structure can be designed to break, to question, to rebel, or to meander through an experience that defies logic while using that same logic to prop itself up into existence. And so, who are we in all of this? What do we become, in the process of combining our knowledge and sensitivities, diving into experimentation?

Warning: The following definitions and investigations are not for the literal-minded. Indeed, if we must define schoshima in six words or less, schoshima is: Kazumichi and Melisandre, experimenting with games. But then, Mélisandre wanted to pretend she could build the world anew... including the following dictionary entries and clarifications:

schoshima

/skōSHēmä/

noun:

1. An island that isn't surrounded by water.
   Mélisandre made a schoshima of folded paper, and gave it to her aunt.” see also: conceptual art, “who is an island?”, and aesthetics.

adjective:

1. A place made by combining two or more geographically incompatible places or elements.
   When Kazu and Mé meet in their dreams, they each choose a different meeting place, and end up someplace schoshima, like Toky-fax, a place neither Halifax nor Tokyo, nor neither.” synonyms: chimerical, quixotic, far-away...

schoshimate

/skōSHēmāt/

noun:

1. A deck officer on the Schoshima
   The Schoshima, a small game company constructed in 2017, in the shape of a small amorphous landmass, to test the theory that an island not surrounded by water will move more freely than a water-bound ship. The Schoshima will disappear in late 2223, sole surviving schoshimate Alan Ptel will describe the vessel, and its voyages in his memoirs:  Unprintable; memoirs of an npc.
2. An inhabitant of a schoshima

Word Origin:
 
Scho /skō/ from Schofield, a name that crossed the Atlantic in the 1800s and shipwrecked on the coast of the Magdelen's Island. The roots of /skō/ either point to a lost medieval village in Northern England and the Old English schole: hut, or to the German schön: beauty.
shima /Shēmä/ from Nakashima, a name that crossed the Pacific in the 2000's and became landlocked in Montreal. The roots of /Shēmä/ point to the Japanese 島: and island that stretches so far its nose is pink while its toes warm in the sun.
 

Controversy: 

 

schole or schön being equally likely origins, a small subset of schoshimates feel the important question is one of self-identification. The hut-like, spiritual descendant of hut-dwellers, engaging in a hut-born philosophy. Or the cognoscenti, whose moral values are derived from a deep engagement with Aesthetics. On the other hand, a predominant number of schoshimates feel that the best theoretical model is one that leaves aside questions of identity and focuses instead on creating not a probability space, but a possibility space. In this model, schole and schön are placed in a false dichotomy, and through the process, emerge as a complex question. A salient and urgent contrast between social classes, as these have defined both Aesthetics (schön), Architecture (schole), and the very question of “who is an island?".

Who is an Island?

Although at first look, the term: "Who is an island" appears to be an identity question, this obscure call and response game (similar to the Marco Polo game), has at its origin another type of question, one that explores an intersection between social isolation, geography and poetry. Is the world inflexible? Can a land mass be folded into a paper crane, and sent to heal a sick child? Is there something in our understanding of geography that can help us understand social isolation? "Who is an island?" one player yells, "No man is an island," the other responds. And the players have tea. High tea. And they discuss whether a woman can be an island, whether an island can be transformed into a golem, and whether that golem should be heeded when they insist on being called Xanthippe. Or the game can be played in solitaire, or in an echoey stairwell, or while on a raft staring out onto expanses of ocean.